renga snippets

Nice things from being sat in the middle of a council estate shopping precinct on a Saturday in June whilst writing poetry and inviting passers by to join us:

passing through

Joan – not sure what she had originally planned to do with her day, but she spent about 6 hours of it with us.

Joan – not sure if she really understood what we were doing, but she didn’t ‘alf come out with some corkers.

Gloria – initially intensely suspicious of what we were doing and our motives for doing so. She went away to think about it, but re-appeared 10 minutes later and contributed a verse.

Gloria – likes botany.

process

Diesel – local mc from the estate. Presumably spends a lot of time working with words and performing in front of crowds.

Diesel – Didn’t half look nervous when he was sat down talking with us.

Gang of youths – hanging around looking dismissive of what we were doing, but making sure they could hear what we were saying. “They’re writing poetry man, and then they just all go quiet.”

process 2

Maxine – Works in the cafe, but managed to join us for a while at the beginning of the session.

Maxine – Would join us on one of the Saturdays she’s not working, but she’ll be akido training instead.

space

Paul – for gently (but persistantly!) pointing out that, as of lunchtime, none of my verses had yet been selected!